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Li Xue Jiang of the Chinese newspaper People's Daily is hauled away by members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after he tried to grab a microphone and ask Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (not pictured) a question during a news conference at Xstrata Nickel's Raglan Mine in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, August 23, 2013. (REUTERS/Chris Wattie)

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OTTAWA — One of the Chinese reporters barred from travelling with the Prime Minister's Office on its annual Arctic tour told QMI Agency he didn't even know he was persona non grata.

The PMO accused Li Xue Jiang from the People's Daily of "bad behaviour" during last year's Arctic trip and said that this year, Li, as well as reporters from the China state-run Xinhua news agency, couldn't come.

"I didn't even apply," Li said Tuesday from his office in Ottawa. "We paid a lot of money last year and we were treated unfairly. I made up my mind, I will never go again."

Li pushed one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's staffers during last year's trip because he wasn't allowed to ask Harper a question.

Li said Harper's staffer had pulled him out of the question queue twice, "and the third time I pushed back. So how is that bad behaviour?"

Harper, his staff and members of the Ottawa Press Gallery leave Wednesday for a week-long trip to the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Reporters from the People's Daily and Xinhua are often described as mouthpieces for the Chinese government, but Li rejects the claim.

Li said he works for "an independent newspaper in China" whose staffers "are not controlled by anyone," despite the fact the Daily's website says it advocates "the (Chinese government's) belief, guiding public opinion."

"I had good intentions to promote mutual understanding between Canada and China," he said.